Jessica Waite

University of Vermont | UVM

Countries in the Asia Pacific region aim to eliminate malaria by 2030. A cornerstone of malaria elimination is the effective management of Anopheles mosquito vectors. Current control tools such as insecticide treated nets or indoor residual sprays target mosquitoes in human dwellings. We find in a high transmission region in India, malaria vector p...

Many parasites, such as those that cause malaria, depend on an insect vector for transmission between vertebrate hosts. Theory predicts that parasites should have little or no effect on the transmission ability of vectors, e.g., parasites should not reduce vector life span as this will limit the temporal window of opportunity for transmission. Howe...

Despite concern that climate change could increase the human risk to malaria in certain areas, the temperature dependency of malaria transmission is poorly characterized. Here, we use a mechanistic model fitted to experimental data to describe how Plasmodium falciparum infection of the African malaria vector, Anopheles gambiae, is modulated by temp...

Malaria transmission is strongly influenced by traits such as mosquito life expectancy, vector competence, and the Extrinsic Incubation Period (EIP, which is the development time of the parasite inside the mosquito). Even though these traits are known to be shaped by environmental temperature and there is considerable concern that climate change co...

Malaria transmission is strongly influenced by traits such as mosquito life expectancy, vector competence, and the Extrinsic Incubation Period (EIP, which is the development time of the parasite inside the mosquito). Even though these traits are known to be shaped by environmental temperature and there is considerable concern that climate change co...

Despite its epidemiological importance, the time Plasmodium parasites take to achieve development in the vector mosquito (the extrinsic incubation period, EIP) remains poorly characterized. A novel non-destructive assay designed to estimate EIP in single mosquitoes, and more broadly to study Plasmodium – Anopheles vectors interactions, is presented...

Despite its epidemiological importance, the time Plasmodium parasites take to achieve development in the vector mosquito (the extrinsic incubation period, EIP) remains poorly characterized. A novel non-destructive assay designed to estimate EIP in single mosquitoes, and more broadly to study Plasmodium – Anopheles vectors interactions, is presented...

Insecticide-treated bed nets reduce malaria transmission by limiting contact between mosquito vectors and human hosts when mosquitoes feed during the night. However, malaria vectors can also feed in the early evening and in the morning when people are not protected. Here, we explored how the timing of blood feeding interacts with environmental temp...

The rate of malaria transmission is strongly determined by parasite development time in the mosquito, known as the extrinsic incubation period (EIP), since the quicker parasites develop, the greater the chance that the vector will survive long enough for the parasite to complete development and be transmitted. EIP is known to be temperature-depende...

A number of studies report changes in the biting time of malaria mosquitoes following the introduction of long-lasting insecticide-treated bed nets (LLINs). Here, we explored whether timing of blood feeding interacts with environmental temperature to influence the vector competence of Anopheles mosquitoes for the human malaria parasite, Plasmodium...

The rate of malaria transmission is strongly determined by parasite development time in the mosquito, known as the extrinsic incubation period (EIP), since the quicker parasites develop, the greater the chance that the vector will survive long enough for the parasite to complete development and be transmitted. EIP is known to be temperature depende...

Long-lasting insecticidal nets (LLINs) and indoor residual spraying (IRS) have contributed substantially to reductions in the burden of malaria in the past 15 years. Building on this foundation, the goal is now to drive malaria towards elimination. Vector control remains central to this goal, but there are limitations to what is achievable with the...

Background: Novel interventions for malaria control are necessary in the face of problems such as increasing insecticide resistance and residual malaria transmission. One way to assess performance prior to deployment in the field is through mathematical modelling. Modelled here are a range of potential outcomes for eave tubes, a novel mosquito con...

Control of mosquitoes requires the ability to evaluate new insecticides and to monitor resistance to existing insecticides. Monitoring tools should be flexible and low cost so that they can be deployed in remote, resource poor areas. Ideally, a bioassay should be able to simulate transient contact between mosquitoes and insecticides, and it should...

We studied diverse antigen binding in hosts and the outcome of parasitism.We used captive bred F1 descendants of feral rock pigeons (Columba livia) challenged with blood feeding flies (Hippoboscidae) and a protozoan parasite (Haemoproteus). Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs) and immunoblots were used to test (1) if pre-infection IgY antige...

Transmission of insect-borne diseases is shaped by the interactions among parasites, vectors, and hosts. Any factor that alters movement of infected vectors from infected to uninfeced hosts will in turn alter pathogen spread. In this paper, we study one such pathogen-vector-host system, avian malaria in pigeons transmitted by fly ectoparasites, whe...

Blood-feeding arthropods can harm their hosts in many ways, such as through direct tissue damage and anemia, but also by distracting hosts from foraging or watching for predators. Blood-borne pathogens transmitted by arthropods can further harm the host. Thus, effective behavioral and immunological defenses against blood-feeding arthropods may prov...

In principle, the solution to stopping the spread of any vectorborne pathogen is a simple one - just stop infected vectors from biting new hosts and the pathogen cannot spread. Importantly, this does not necessarily require killing all vectors, or protecting all hosts. Transmission only occurs when an infected vector moves to a new host, and so kno...

Control of malaria vectors relies heavily on the use of chemical insecticides. However, the effectiveness of current control strategies is being undermined by the evolution of insecticide resistance. This problem is exacerbated by the fact that only four classes of insecticide are approved by the WHO for use in domestic settings, creating limited o...

Like many parasites, avian haematozoa are often found at lower infection intensities in older birds than young birds. One explanation, known as the ''selection'' hypothesis, is that infected young birds die before reaching adulthood, thus removing the highest infection intensities from the host population. We tested this hypothesis in the field by...

Birds combat ectoparasites with many defences but the first line of defence is grooming behaviour, which includes preening with the bill and scratching with the feet. Preening has been shown to be very effective against ectoparasites. However, most tests have been with feather lice, which are relatively slow moving. Less is known about the effectiv...

Folsomia candida Willem (Isotomidae: Collembola) is an edaphic parthenogenetic species commonly used in ecotoxicity studies. We exposed F. candida to a high dose of three antibiotics, tylosin, ampicillin, and oxytetracycline, that target different bacterial groups. Possible toxic effects were assessed through egg production, hatching, and body size...

Results of electrophoretic surveys have suggested that hemoglobin polymorphism may be maintained by balancing selection in natural populations of house mice, Mus musculus. Here we report a survey of nucleotide variation in the adult globin genes of house mice from South America. We surveyed nucleotide polymorphism in two closely linked alpha-globin...

Malaria parasites in the genus Plasmodium are now placed within 11 subgenera based on morphology under the light microscope, life-history traits, and host taxon. The phylogenetic significance of these characters, however, is problematic because the observed variation could be homoplasious. Using Plasmodium infections found in 2632 birds of many avi...